Comment on the Sviaz-Expocomm exhibition regarding import substitution of software

On the 1st of April Head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications (Minsvyaz) Nikolay Nikiforov approved the branch plan on import substitution of software. According to the plan, Russian software is to occupy at least 50% in the most segments of the Russian enterprise market by 2025. As it is said in the document, the share of the Russian client and mobile operating systems will increase from 5% to 50%.

To support collaborative development of software in segments lacking national competitive software products (e.g. operating systems, database management systems, virtualization technology and cloud infrastructure management), Minsvyaz offers to create an Autonomous Noncommercial Organization (ANO).

“Needless to say, the approved plan will facilitate the development of the Russian software industry. Now we can say that priority is given to Russian manufacturers when purchasing software that has been so crucial earlier,” points out Anna Kosheleva, the head of the annual international exhibition for telecommunications, control systems, IT and communication services Sviaz-Expocomm. “I would like to note that Expocentre pays special attention to Russian software manufacturers. We even provide a separate specialized salon for this category of exhibitors participating in the Sviaz-Expocomm 2015 exhibition.”

Representative of PROTEI Research and Development Centre, which specializes in development of a whole range of hardware and software products for the telecom sector and participates in Sviaz-Expocomm 2015, Maria Semenova points out that the Minsvyaz initiative is quite explicable because the present absolute dependence on foreign-made software is an obvious flaw in the national security.

“We need to make our own operating systems and application software. And we can see the first steps in this direction by example of PROTEI software designed for safety systems. For instance, application of OpenSource platform for server operating system and Russian special software allows not to be dependent on import solutions,” emphasized Maria Semenova.